Connecting Media - Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg

Zack Settel
Immersive Music
In the world of electronic arts, the concept of immersion has often been associated with the kinds
of audiovisual (but particularly visual) experiences that are nowadays frequently encountered in
computer gaming and virtual reality applications. At the base of this concept is the ability to render
the audiovisual encounter for the perspective of a specific individual, thereby strengthening that
individual‘s impression of „being there“, i.e. being surrounded or immersed in the content. In audio
and certainly in music however, there have been comparatively few advances made in this direction.
Surround Sound technology marks the current level of the immersive audio experience. Unlike cur-
rent image rendering technology (e.g. OpenGL), its potential for rendering sound in space is quite
limited, allowing for only a general notion of sound source directionality or incidence.
Music in space has long captivated the imagination of composers of various epochs. From Ives to
Stockhausen, ideas concerning the experience of music in space, and composition strategies have
reflected thinking on the subject. With the ability to model and simulate the experience of sound
in space come many fascinating possibilities. Some of these possibilities can allow us to experiment
on a very fundamental level, where rules concerning our perception of sound can be modified (e.g.
„narrow focus hearing“).
This talk will present (1) an immersive audio environment called Soundscape, which has been deve-
loped during the past two years at the Centre for Intelligent Machines at McGill University; and (2)
the arrival of Immersive music, as explored and developed during this time by the composer.